


Delete, Delete

by SrebrnaFH



Category: Captain America (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: Alternate Universe - Soulmates, M/M, One Shot, Post-Captain America: Civil War (Movie), Sad, Soulmate-Identifying Marks, Soulmates, no happy ending
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-12-30
Updated: 2019-12-30
Packaged: 2021-02-27 12:08:31
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,406
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/22036807
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/SrebrnaFH/pseuds/SrebrnaFH
Summary: Soulmarks. Chosen people have them.Only one country made a science of studying them and learnt a terrible truth.Concept: What if tattooing over or damaging a soulmark actually injured the person you’re linked with and only Wakanda has knowledge about it?
Relationships: Steve Rogers & Natasha Romanov, Steve Rogers/Tony Stark
Comments: 10
Kudos: 134





	Delete, Delete

**Author's Note:**

> Oneshot. Sad.

The phone was ringing. Suddenly. Without any regard to the fact that he was right now performing a very delicate and precise operation, of course.

That phone.

That damn phone.

He took off his welding mask and pressed the green button.

"Rogers?" he barked.

Obviously, it couldn't be anyone else. Not like there were many people who had the number to a burnphone used by Captain America to communicate with his...

In short, who had that number? Nobody.

That was what Steven Grant Rogers was to him now.

"Stark."

It wasn't Steve's voice.

"Barton. What's going on? Why are you calling me at ass o'clock in the morning?"

"It's Steve."

"No, I'm pretty sure you are Clint, not Steve. Are you drunk or...?"

"No, I'm not, but you, however, are still a dick. We need... Steve needs your help. He..."

"He is doing what he wants and there is no way I'm intruding on your warped team dynamics. Nu-uh."

"They threatened to arrest him."

"I thought you were all in Wakanda."

"And Wakanda has some specific laws about soulmarks, apparently."

Tony grimaced.

"They _what_?"

"Soulmarks. That thing you are probably unfamiliar with, what with you having no... Nat, let me go!"

"Sorry, Tony. Had to take care of something else and Barton got to the phone first. Anyway, Steve is in a bad condition. Not sure what exactly happened, but we were in this parlour — Clint wanted to get inked, had a design picked and what not. Steve was wandering around, looking at the examples and then went to the owner to ask about something. Before I noticed, she was calling the guards and shouting about attempted manslaughter. I managed to get us back to the palace, but one of the guards caught up to us and explained that what Steve asked for was tantamount to manslaughter."

Tony could have easily believed in anything anyone would have said about Captain Steven Rogers, but that was a bit of a stretch.

"In a tattoo parlour?"

Nat sighed gustily.

"They had apparently worked out that if you cover or get rid of your soulmark - laser it away, whatever - it... it kills part of the soul."

"That would make it a suicide."

"Not when it kills your _Soulmate's_ soul. It kind of... kind of deletes it - as much as you can cover or remove of the mark, that much they lose of their humanity. And Steve asked for a black square."

_Shit._

"They assumed — they saw it as him being willing to just delete someone's entire soul?"

"Yes. We tried to explain that even if this is their new finding, he didn't know that — hell, I didn't, and I... And not to mention Clint! But they decided to put him on trial. And that idiot just looked up at them and said that this is appropriate, since he had almost killed the love of his life, and, quote, 'the brightest soul on Earth'. They said they will only let him out if that person shows up and intercedes on his behalf, since they need to make sure he is actually stable and thinking straight. Steve only said that the person will not come and he has been hiding his mark since it appeared, so I have no idea who it is... But you can find out!"

"You want me to find Rogers' soulmate."

"Yep."

"To stop him from going to prison."

"If possible. Wakanda doesn't have death sentence, but they do practice isolatory incarceration. He won't do well."

"Are you sure you want to be asking me for something like this?"

"Who else can have resources to find that person? If SHIELD was still active, I'd have been on Fury's line this second, but since we blew this up... You are our best bet."

"And you _are sure_ you want me involved into something that supposedly should help Steve?"

"Tony..."

"No, let me put it differently. Why should I give a slightest fuck about what happens to Rogers? Hm? Can you tell me?"

"I thought..."

"Well, you thought wrong. I don't care."

"Tony...!"

"Do you know what he did to me? Hm? Do you know what exactly your saintly Captain did to me? Without showing even a shred of doubt?"

She sighed.

"Steve hasn't slept a full night since we arrived here. He keeps waking up, begging us to let him go to check on you. We had to play some TV the last time he had an attack - you were talking about clean energy, some speech, very nice. It was the only way to convince him you were alive."

"No thanks to him," Tony growled.

"Stark..."

"He pushed his shield into my arc reactor, Romanov. You of all people should know how that works. It broke my sternum - _he_ broke my sternum. You know? That part where I used to have that tin insert? And it nearly gave me a heart attack. I've been sick for months after that. Four bouts of pneumonia. One more heart attack, this time in front of Pep. She knows everything, by the way. Three minor surgeries to fix my ribs. Two major ones to treat my heart and remove the printed bone sternum since it was threatening to poke into my heart and other medical consequences. Five months of dedicated rehab just to get me walking again without keeling over. The man you see on TV? It's a mix of great makeup, lights and a really good combination of drugs that keep me up and relatively painless."

By the choked sound on the other end, he had finally managed to surprise Natasha Romanov with something.

"I didn't know," she breathed. "I— I'm so sorry, Tony. You... and we all just..."

"Left me, yeah. By the way, the other two? They had left me, too. Pep and Happy paired up. Hurray for them!"

"Shit..."

"So, tell me, _Natalya_ , why would I even consider trying to help Steven Rogers? Why would you think it was..."

"He hid his shield."

"What?"

"He hadn't been using the bloody shield, not for months. Not once, since... All he's been doing is sitting around, looking at his hands. I've never seen a man so scared of his own hands before, Tony."

"I'd be doing the same thing if I were him," he snapped, standing up. "He almost bloody killed me with them!"

She was silent for a moment.

Then there was a sigh.

"Can you find his fucking soulmate or not?"

"I don't have to."

He disconnected and sat down heavily, looking at his wrist, where the trial run of his tattoo-removing laser from all these months earlier had obliterated the tip of one of the star's corners.

Slowly, slowly, he shook his head and looked up.

"FRI, I need the jet to be ready soonest. Please contact King T'Challa for official approval of landing."

"On it, Boss."

He raised the soulmarked wrist to see it better and pressed at the centre with his fingertip. Breathed over it. Wrapped his right hand around it and curled up, hugging it to himself, crying with dry sobs.

He was so fucking pathetic he needed to hug himself.

Steve would probably know what he was doing.

That made it even worse.

They had tested it, one day, when they were still so fresh and innocent and everything was so new. Their marks were overlapping in the function, shape, capabilities and contents - Tony's Reactor on Steve's hand and Steve's Shield on Tony's - both conducted cold, warmth, touch and injury. That had been part of his plan with the laser - finally something that would have hurt Steve as much as it had hurt _him_.

Apparently, even worse.

He could only hope nothing _really_ happened to Steve because of what Tony had done. That it was just some silly local superstition. That he hadn't been a jealous little bitch and killed off a piece of his lover's soul in the process.

Had Steve felt it? Had he guessed what Tony had been trying to do? Was tattooing over his own mark a retaliation for Tony's attempt? Or did he just wish not to see the sign of belonging to Tony anymore?

Tony clutched at his chest, heart constricting and seizing.

"It's not my fault," he whispered. "It started... it started before. I _didn't_ cause all this. I didn't."

He looked up at the empty, black screens around him, but there was no answer coming.


End file.
